Generally Horrible Questions: April Gosling

The ballroom in Boulder Bookstore.

It occurred to us that it's been way too long since we harassed innocent booksellers with our questions. I (Liz) met April Gosling when she was a manager at Tattered Cover in Denver, and now she works at Boulder Bookstore. Spoiler: it's in Boulder. April likes books, is from Michigan, and is engaged to a guy named Ryan but she insists that he will not be changing his name to "Ryan Gosling" after the wedding. That seems like a missed opportunity. Anyway, here's April. 


Generally Horrible Questions: April Gosling

We asked April for a picture. This is the one she chose.
Buy books from her or she will kill you.

1. Describe your bookselling odyssey. How did you end up where you are?

Kalamazoo, Michigan is the graveyard of ambition.  I had been forced into a public university after attending a private high school and starting at a private college...  So the month before school started, my sister and I applied at any number of places we thought would be cool to work at...  Cool places meaning coffee shops, and only coffee shops. We both got jobs at John Rollins Books (RIP) as baristi.  There was a lot of free coffee that year.  And my job history started to look like this: library clerk, 3rd chip waitress at a dive, comic shop clerk, bookseller, state park ranger, projectionist, bookseller, bookstore manager, and now...  Director of School and Corporate Sales (I got to make up this job title)...

Most of those jobs were at the same time as other, so really there are significant portions of my 20s that I don't remember. (There are significant portions of Gianna's 20's that she can't remember, but the lapse has nothing to do with coffee.) And very little of that was due to drugs or alcohol or strange men...  I know I dropped out of college, did a book tour for a fairly decent chapbook of poetry, and that I moved to Colorado.  The rest is remnants of old resumes I found.  Hopefully mine...
Did I mention that Kalamazoo is the graveyard of ambition?

2. What is your job now? What sort of shenanigans do you get up to?
My job now... I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook. I've also been known to read at my desk. My job is to curate and grow a sales aspect of the store that didn't receive as much attention as it did before. This means, to be short, that no one knows what my job is--most importantly, my bosses. Seriously. Shenanigans? I think it's more the store than the job, but I do a surprising amount of work barefoot. Wild and crazy, I know. (How is that shocking? We don't wear pants some days.)

3. What are you reading now?

I'm reading a book that my Penguin rep guilted me into reading.  It has a horse on the cover, so if he hadn't sent a signed book from my favorite author, I would've happily ignored it.  (Girls with horse obsessions have penis issues/obsessions.)  It's The Untold by Courtney Collins.  I picked it up immediately after Neverhome by Laird Hunt.  And after finishing this, I want violence and a strong man and a Neal Stephenson-esque prose quality.  Don't get me wrong; it's beautiful, and I'm really enjoying it, but two sparse poetic novels back to back kinda hurts.

Read poetry to me, Mr. Barry.

4. What books melt your butter (if you know what we mean)?
Sebastian Barry's language.  If I could make sweet, sweet love to his use of the English language, I'd do it. Fiance be damned.  (And yes, he knows that.)  I dated a poet in college; I'd rather have the language, not the man.  Poets tend to be a wee bit fucked up, either real fuckery or feigned, they are a messy folk.  And incestuous too. (Yeah, we're glad this answer stopped here. Liz was starting to get uncomfortable...mostly because you mentioned poetry.)

5. Let’s talk about Michigan. Were you at least a little tempted by Detroit’s offer of free houses for writers?
Oh, hell yeah!  I'd live with the roving packs of wild dogs for a) a 'free' house, and b) the chance to be kinda close to home.  I don't know if I would fit the 'writer' bit...  I mean...  I write poetry about as often as a death row inmate gets a conjugal visit...  (Ooh! Death row inmates have more active social lives than Liz?! Excellent.) What else would you like to know about the best state in the union?

6. You have to eat dinner with one of these famous Ohio natives. Who do you pick, and will you bring up how your home state hates Ohio? Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson), Colonel Custer, President Warren Harding, Ted Turner, or Dean Martin? Also, does it bother you that Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison is from Ohio? Oh, and you can bring one of these famous Michiganites(?) to the dinner: Tim Allen, Jim Bakker, Bozo the Clown, Dave Coulier, Ted Nugent, Steven Seagal; who’s it going to be? Death is not an option.

I think Nancy Cartwright and Dean Martin would be awesome; we'd do shitty impressions while drinking whiskey and martinis.  I'm sure Dave Coulier will drink as soon as I bring up "You Oughtta Know".  So three cheers to the Mitten State!  And yes, we'd discuss the war.  Only to explain that ultimately the U.P. is bunches better than Toledo. (Okay, allow us to clarify this answer. See, it turns out that Ohio and Michigan hate each other in part because they fought a war over Toledo. Also, in this "war," there was one wounded person and no deaths. "U.P" stands for Upper Peninsula, which Michigan got to keep when it became a state since they gave up Toledo to Ohio. I can't imagine how this series of events didn't make the core curriculum in our high schools. Anyway, the correct answers to this series of questions are: Harding, yes, Jim Bakker.)

7. Let’s talk nuptials. On a scale of 1 to Book Nerd Insanity, where does your upcoming wedding rank? What’s the coolest/craziest thing you’re planning? Are you registering at a bookstore?

Imagine April and Ryan Gosling under this arch.

I feel like we crested the scale when we did the math on exactly how many average-sized hardcovers it will take to construct an arch roughly seven feet high and five feet across.  Or dividing our books by color for the DIY projects we've left to do...  Note to publishers: Please print books in steel gray, sage green, and majolica blue.  Stop with the black.  It's fucking up my arch.  And all the crazy book decorations seem normal to me now, so can't say what's craziest...  I get to use power tools to drill holes through books!  That's probably a bad thing.  The fiance hasn't given up the idea of having a bookstore onsite, so perhaps the registering. (Since your job involves special event sales, there pretty much has to be an onsite bookstore.)

8. Liz or Gianna?

Better the devil I know, so Liz.  Sorry, G; I'm sure you're swell. (Naturally, the correct answer is always Liz.)

9. Astros or Cubs? (Keep in mind that we take our baseball very seriously.)

This is like a Buzzfeed quiz where the obvious choices of Tigers, Red Wings, or huh? are missing.  I was in Chicago when the Cubs won some important game back in 2006-ish, so we'll go with Cubs. (Your life will be filled with disappointment. Just like Gianna's.)

10. Do you have a magical moment working in the book business that stands out?

Good:  The release of the last Harry Potter.  I was working at Horizon Books in Petoskey, MI.  The staff all dressed as characters; we had classes, a basilisk cave, and tons of people.  At midnight, the manager jumped onto the counter and we started passing out books.  Simple enough.

Bad:  Same bookstore, about a year later.  Customer goes on about how expensive the small city is; he stops complaining for a moment, looks at me and says, "Where do the poor people live?  Like ones with your job?"  I answered we all lived under the bridge during the summer, raise our prices, and live relatively well on the money we made off the tourists during the summer.

11. Dish on your boss. We promise that no one reads this blog.
I feel like a gargantuan monster when standing next to my boss.  Even if you have zero readers, there is nothing bad to say...  He chews loudly?

Read poetry to me, Mr. Franco.

12. Any author crushes?
Hmm...  Yeah...  Nope.  I'd like to keep the crushes quiet as the crushes are local authors who may or may not follow me on Twitter. (Got it. We're just going to say that it's James Franco.)

13. Where do you hope to go in Book Land? (What does the future hold?)

Beyond the extreme respect and notoriety among my bookselling kin?  My crazy old lady dream is to own a bed & breakfast with a bookshop...  However, the future holds as the present is; until the fiance has a job that means I can work part time, and then only if the job is fairly stress free and fun.  Yes, he knows this. Then all your books are belong to me.  And my tons of reading time.

Man... I don't curse enough.  And there are like zero lies in here. (Sucker.)

Thanks April. 

Best Book of 2013 So Far: Liesl's Pick

Boulder Bookstore

Remember Liesl? She's the children's book buyer at Boulder Bookstore in Colorado. We interviewed her awhile back and yet she still responds to our email. Liesl has quite a few issues to address, including that she's pretty short, she reads kids books, and, well, she keeps answering our questions. Oh, and she makes a point of telling us when she goes to cool places on vacation, and that's just obnoxious. Still, we love Boulder Bookstore, so we're grudgingly featuring her pick today.

Here's Liesl Freudenstein's pick for the best book of 2013 so far:

The book I have is Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson.  It's the book I was really glad to have while I was sitting on a flight to Europe, so I didn't have to feed myself, or get my own beverage, or anything (except the potty stop, cause really you do have to do that by yourself!) except read this really stunning work.  I really didn't want it to end, either the flight or the book.  The nice thing was, there was a return trip, and the book DOESN'T really end!

Polling the Masses: What to Read After Gone Girl

I've been noticing a trend over the last few months when perusing the search queries that led to our little blog.  Among things like "hot lesbians" (oh, the joys of sharing a blog with Gianna) and "cover of Old Yeller," there are a huge number of people out there in Book Land looking for books similar to Gillian Flynn's breakout psychological thriller Gone Girl.  We, of course, love Gillian Flynn and her books.  If you're looking for Gone Girl-esque reads, don't overlook Flynn's other novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places.  I decided to ask our group of experts--some of the booksellers across our territories--for some other options.  I'm sure they've been fielding this question for months now, so we're going to steal their ideas and smear them all over the web (or at least to the web surfers looking for "Liesl Von Trapp" and "cute naked girls"...not necessarily together).  A friendly reminder: shopping at these bookstores keep these booksellers employed and keep the expert recommendations coming.  Say thank you by shopping at your local bookstore.  It makes a difference.

Ashanti (via fellow bookseller Stephanie), Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colorado 

One of our booksellers, Ashanti, read and loved Gone Girl, and I asked her what she'd recommend to someone who enjoyed that book.  She said that she thinks she may love it for different reasons than most people, but she did say she was reading I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan at the same time as she read Gone Girl, and felt that the two books complimented each other nicely. She said she would also recommend Gillian Flynn's other books, or something by Stephen King - she feels The Shining has a similar tone.

Cathy, Tattered Cover, Denver, Colorado

How about Robert Goddard's Into the Blue or Borrowed Time? Page turners about missing/dead women with a sketchy anti-hero. Plot AND character driven.

McKenna, Murder By the Book, Houston, Texas

Megan Abbott -- The End of Everything and Dare Me

Tana French -- anything [Tana French pops up a lot when I've informally asked booksellers this question.  I've heard nothing but praise for her books.]

Danielle, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Texas

I recommend John Fowles The Collector. It has a similar format and tone to Gone Girl - it's half told from the point of view of a kidnapper & half from entries in the kidnapped woman's diary. You hear the same story from two dramatically different points of view, and they're both fascinating to follow. It's Fowles' first novel that he wrote relatively young in the mid-sixties. Amazing writing - reads like a thriller but is obviously a literary novel. [I love this book.  It's the stuff of nightmares and refers back to Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Great read.]

Scott, BookPeople, Austin, Texas

The End Of Everything by Megan Abbott- Abbott takes noir to new areas with the story of a 13 year-old girl in 80's suburban Detroit looking into the disapearance of her friend and learning more secrets than she should. A strong, complex, beautifully disturbing look at people ruled by thier desires and emotions.

Valerie and the staff at Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Texas
I'd love to share but we can't think of anything like that hot mess. We'd love to know what other booksellers think!

Generally Horrible Questions: Liesl Freudenstein

The great Liesl Freudenstein

As I've perhaps mentioned, last fall I added some new states to my Book Land territory, including Colorado.  My first official act as a rep for the (What's the state slogan for Colorado? Former Land of Tebow for a Year or So State? Mile High State? Rocky Mountain State?) state involved joining my Random House colleague Michele at Boulder Bookstore for a staff presentation.  While several reps from adult publishing lines presented titles, after we finished, the children's book buyer for Boulder Bookstore stepped up and presented books for little people.  Three things struck me about Liesl Freudenstein: 1. she knows her stuff, 2. she probably would smack me if I made a Sound of Music joke about her extremely German/Austrian name, and 3. she's probably a seriously disturbed individual.  I mean that in the best way.  I thought, "Here's someone who gets the joke....or might be drunk." I'm always impressed by adults who can sell children's books and not transform into troll princesses with pink tiaras and Seussian speech patterns.  A few weeks ago I asked Liesl if she'd be willing to answer our horrible questions, and since she indeed IS a disturbed, possibly inebriated individual, she readily agreed.  So here you go, our first ever blog post dedicated to the children's section of Book Land.  I hope you've been vaccinated properly.


Generally Horrible Questions: Liesl "Von Trapp" Freudenstein

Less important: what Liesl and her hubby are reading on
their Greek vacation.  More important is what they're
drinking.  Am I right?

1.     How did you get in the book business?
I got in the book business to foil my dad's ambitions for me.  He wanted me to be an astronaut or at least a rocket scientist, but being a hard core rebel, I choose book selling.  Also, there was a bookstore down the road and I hung around so much they gave me a job.  [So...loitering and stickin' it to the man lead to bookselling.  I guess it's better than prison.  My sister is a rocket scientist, by the way.  It's overrated.]


2.     Why children’s books?  Was there a book that drove you to it (Finnegan’s Wake, perhaps?)?
I did every other job EXCEPT children's as obviously that is the SCARIEST and most DIFFICULT type of book selling and buying and it requires an expert.  Oddly, as soon as I had a child I was dubbed an instant expert and all of my shifts were in children's from then on.  When I had two children-I was dubbed an expert times two and given the buyer job.  [If this isn't an afterschool special promoting abstinence, I don't know what is.]


3.     What book(s) changed your life?
Truly I loved Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave and Hollow Hills-my dad thinks this was the beginning of the end of my astronaut ambitions.  That and a deep mistrust of the laws of physics.  Give me magic! [Your father seems obsessed with the space program.  I can give him my sister's phone number. He'll appreciate you more afterward.]

4.     You have offspring (sorry).  What’s the best book to read aloud?  Twilight? 
Twilight does not make for a good read-aloud the dialogue is too stilted and there are too many silent longing glances.  Fortunately, my daughter is here to help me with the question.(pause for the asking of the  question...)

She votes for Redwall because it has "lots of fun accents and it's very entertaining with all of the songs and descriptions of food-it's fun to listen to mom read it."  I take that back, she can no longer help-Redwall is exceedingly difficult to read out loud--too many accents,  so many lengthy  picnics plus there is poetry and singing too.  [Sometimes Gianna reads me passages from Fifty Shades of Grey. That book is awesome for the tweens!]

5.     Seriously, how much do you love Twilight? 

I have never read Twilight....am I disqualified now? [Our love for you is undying.]

6.     What children’s book should everyone give their kids but has slipped under the radar?

We (previously mentioned daughter & I) think Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell is brilliant. Whimsical, half graphic, and a mystery to boot.  I also think that every child should have a copy of When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach.  Not as much teen angst as Twilight, but the look on the mother's face when the baker gives her son a real dinosaur is way better than anything Bella could express. [Wait--Bella has expressions?]


7.     What’s the last adult book you read?  (Twilight is not an adult book.)
I just finished Karin Slaughter's new book--'cause when I'm not reading about teen drug use, depression, identity crisis, and the end of the world, I like to read about serial killers. [This answer is damn near perfect in every way.]


8.     As the first children’s book specialist featured on this blog, is today the greatest day of your life?
Today is truly the best day of my life--I hope it's as good for you as it is for me....oh, except for that time I was interviewed by Erin Zlotnik for her blog-she was my first. [You didn't save yourself for us?  Insert follow-up abstinence comment here.]

9.     Liz or Gianna?
I don't know Gianna, so I'm wondering what she's like.  [Gianna says she can be whatever you want her to be.  However, the correct answer is ALWAYS LIZ.]

10.  Harry or Voldemort? Or that older, frumpy woman in the pink suit from the movie trailers?
Harry-at least he has a nose-too creepy without a nose.....but the snake thing is interesting.  [This is a trick question.  The correct answer is "whoever Maggie Smith plays."]

11.  Amuse us with an anecdote from the land of little people.
Are you calling me short? [Yeah, I call everybody short.]  I just had a lovely conversation with a child regarding his vast Lego collection, how many books he has (at least 500 including sticker books), and how many blocks(millions and millions), and how l should really, really get more books, because well, he "has all these" as he completely dismisses my entire Lego section with a casual wave of his hand.  Kids are like that, tellin'  it like it is.  [Um...children should be seen and not heard...or not seen and not heard.]


12.  A friend of mine makes me watch Yo Gabba Gabba with her kid.  Also, she didn’t name her son after me.  How should I handle this situation?

That's tough!  I would offer to babysit, then give him a recording of the Barney song, play it until he has it memorized then send him home with it.  [I'm pretty sure that I'm not legally permitted to babysit anymore, but I like the way you think.]


13.  What’s your latest book love?
I am very excited for The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There-by Catherynne Valente.  I loved the first book The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making very much; it has a great voice capturing what makes books like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland so wonderful.  A mix of dreamworlds and childhood  and unexpected complications--just like growing up. Plus it's an awesome title.  I also love a whole box of RH books I just received from Erin...I haven't opened it yet--I'm waiting for privacy--but there are bound to be some really awesome books in it like a kid's version of 50 Shades of Grey-maybe 25 Helpings of Mudpies?  [We are now searching the Urban Dictionary for the definition of "mudpie."....Yikes.  There are eight definitions and we aren't bold enough to put any of them on here. Definition #9 would be "cause for termination."]

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Thanks Liesl!  You do Children's Book Land proud.